


Call It By Name

by Jude



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 02:20:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4161954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jude/pseuds/Jude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How *did* Furiosa learn much of what she's good at?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call It By Name

On the third day, Furiosa began reciting her own name, her mother's name, and her clan's name, to herself, morning and night, so that she could live namelessly. White chalk sweat ran freely from her shaved head, making her eyes and the healing brand sting and burn. That was surely why her eyes watered as they did, as she ran with the name and the chance her mother left her.

_Where had her mother gotten the knife? There had been so much blood. In the confusion, Furiosa slid from hiding and vanished into the crowd of War Pups that gathered around the wounded Joe._

The first challenge came almost immediately, but while Furiosa was small enough to pass for a young War Pup, she was older, smarter, faster, more coordinated. So many of them loved her immediately — loved HIM immediately, Fury, shaved and chalked like them. No one questioned HIS presence once HE had beaten them to a pulp.

_Miss Giddy's knowing gaze found her at every opportunity, few though those were._

Though Fury was small, he was wiry and strong, despite the scant rations they all lived on, powered solely by his name. He attacked at the tiniest slight and won nearly all the time, fighting filthy and vicious. Many War Pups (and later, War Boys) lost teeth and even ears to Fury. Fury had so many trophies he had to stitch them to a (convenient) shirt.

_Furiosa learned quickly to stay close to Joe, because he had either less inclination to molest his War Pup attendants than the Imperators, or more reason to pretend to less inclination._

When the Organic Mechanic removed the War Boy's mauled forearm, he also discovered Fury's sex. His attempt at blackmail did not last long.

"I am Furiosa," the unmasked War Boy said, staring into Immortan Joe's eyes with an unquenchable rage, still tasting the chrome on her lips. "The price for your life was my arm." 

"Imperator," Joe pronounced: Death's sword had shaved his terrified throat that day, deflected only by a clever War Boy's unparalleled driving and shooting. He had work this War Boy, this Imperator Furiosa could do.

_Miss Giddy lifted her shirt and showed Furiosa's name to her, and her mother's name, and her clan's name, inked in spidery black letters on parchment skin. "Just in case," she said._

Eventually, Furiosa was surprised—and ashamed by her surprise—to learn that the wives had whole lives apart from even Joe. Trapped behind locked doors, they were not just bodies that provided Joe's wealth. They lived and breathed and talked in ways that populated her sleep with dreams again.

_There was a Green Place, with a Valkyrie who chased Furiosa through the meadows and into the trees and Many Mothers who worked the farms._

The newest batch of wives were all so young, each without a mother to give her a chance, or even a name.


End file.
